Anxiety and depression in rheumatoid arthritis: an epidemiologic survey and investigation of clinical correlates in Iranian population.

Psychiatric disorders occur in a considerable proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study was conducted in order to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in Iranian RA patients. In the cross sectional study, 414 RA patients were enrolled prospectively during a period of 6 months from RA clinic of Rheumatology Research Center. Beck's and Cattell's inventories were applied to investigate depression and anxiety in RA patients. RA activity was measured by Disease Activity Score and patients' disability was assessed by Health Assessment Questionnaire. Levels of pain perception were stratified based on Visual Analog Scale. The prevalence of depression was 63.6 % and anxiety was in 84.1 % among RA patients. Mixed anxiety and depression was detected in 60.2 % of the study population. Functional disability was significantly associated with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms (p < 0.001); however there was no association between disease activity and depression or anxiety (p = 0.420). There was weak correlation between disease activity score and functional disability (Spearman's rho = 0.33; p < 0.01). Severe levels of depression and anxiety were associated with higher levels of pain perception (p < 0.001). Our study stressed the impact of depressive and anxiety symptoms in functional disability and pain perception of RA patients. Our results point out the multidisciplinary management of RA.

Prevalence of osteoarthritis in rural areas of Iran: a WHO-ILAR COPCORD study.

AIM: To estimate the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) of different joints in rural areas of Iran. METHODS: From five villages of Tuyserkan County, 1565 individuals were randomly selected and were interviewed to complete the Community Oriented Programme for Control of the Rheumatic Diseases (COPCORD) Core Questionnaire. Among these cases 1192 cases with rheumatic complaints were examined by a rheumatologist and laboratory and radiology tests were performed if necessary for the diagnosis. Definition of OA in various joints, were based on American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. RESULTS: About 20% of the study population had OA in at least one of their joints. Prevalence of OA in the knee joint was 19.34%, in hand joins was 2.66% and in the neck was 2.21%. The most common findings on physical examination of patients with knee OA, hand OA and neck OA were bony crepitus (88.9%), Heberden's nodes (73.2%) and pain on movement (59.9%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that OA in rural areas of Iran was more frequent in comparison with urban areas of Iran. Moreover, the prevalence of OA in rural areas of Iran was higher in comparison with prevalence of OA in rural areas of other Asian countries. Similar to previous studies OA was more frequently detected in the knee joint.